


Ghost

by A Lost Time Journal (RoNask)



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-06-19 17:40:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15515085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoNask/pseuds/A%20Lost%20Time%20Journal
Summary: The man is a complete stranger for Lucy, but he talks as if he knows her from another lifetime. And maybe he does.





	1. Face

“Wow. I would have liked to be your student”  
Lucy Preston - college professor - raised her eyes from her purse and found a tall man getting up from his seat, making his way to her.  
“You’re the one who came in late” she observed. “You’re not my student. How can I help you?”  
He smirked and stopped right before her. “Professor Lucy Preston, I’m Garcia Flynn. Are you familiar with the name Rittenhouse?”  
Her brow furrowed. “Rittenhouse?”  
A small pulling at the corner of his lip. “It’s alright, I didn’t expect you to know” he assured, shoulders a little more relaxed for a reason she could not pinpoint. “How is your mother, professor Preston?” there was something in his tone that bothered her.  
“Why?” the came automatically, as it usually does when one feels their privacy might be breached. She was suddenly very focused on the man. Something was off.  
“Do you know a young woman called Amy?”  
“No…? What do you want, Mr. Flynn?”  
“Lucy,” her name sounded loud even if he had said it as quiet as if they were in a very private conversation. She didn’t miss the step he took forward. “Right now there must be a couple of people looking for me, I have very little time, but…” he studied his surroundings for a moment and took something out of his pocket. Two, actually. “This one” he showed her a black notebook. “is yours”, he raised another one. “This one is mine”  
“How did you get that?” she questioned  
“Check your purse, yours is still inside”  
Hesitant she did as he told and found he was right, the journal her mother had given her was still there.  
“Open it,” Flynn said and did the same, then showed her the first page of the notebook he held. It was her calligraphy, but what was written in one journal did not match the other, even if the dates were the same.  
“I didn’t write this”  
“You will” he assured. “We had this conversation before, a long time ago, but something happened”  
“What are you possibly talking about?”  
“Lucy, I lost something very dear to me and I need your help to get it back, but I know you won’t trust me if I tell you the truth,” he said calmly. “So, I’ll give you these” he handed her the two journals he had. “Read them if you want, you’ll find all you need to know in there. Ask your mother about Henry Cahill, find out if I’m lying. If I am, I’m just a lunatic who you met, but if I’m right…” he didn’t finish but the implications, even if unknown to her, made her shiver. “Here,” he took a small piece of paper out of his pocket. “meet me on this address at eight tonight and I’ll give you the answers you need, Professor Preston”  
“Who are you?”  
He gave her a smile that held no joy or humor. “Somebody who needs your help” he bit his lip, looking down at his shoes for a moment. “For all I know, I’m a dead man right now, Lucy”  
She frowned, but he didn’t offer an explanation.  
“You’ll find my phone in on the other side of the paper” he informed without looking at her at first. “If you find yourself in danger, call this number or text it, you only need a single word and I’ll come”  
“What word?”  
“‘Iris’” he said and showed her a burner phone. “Be careful, Lucy”  
The man turned and walked away, making the historian feel as if she had just given blood. She needed to sit down, whatever had happened there had made her feel drained. She looked at the journals unsure, took a look around her classroom, then back to the notebooks, opened one and started reading.


	2. Haunted

“What the hell?”  
Flynn was already considering a smart ass comment about whatever had caused Wyatt’s shock, when he managed to take a look of the bunker and found the place empty and looking dusty.  
Logan got out of the Lifeboat the best way he could without the stairs, finally allowing the other two men to do the same.  
“Where is everyone?” Rufus questioned already tensing. “And where is our equipment?”   
Flynn and Wyatt split and began searching the place for the others, while the engineer got more and more anxious as he found none of the equipment or any other indication that anybody had been on the bunker in a while.   
“Why does this keeps happening to us? What did we do now? Where’s Jiya? And Lucy? Denise?”  
“Gone” announced Wyatt walking back into the room. “Looks like no one has been using this bunker in years.  
“Because no one did” Garcia declared, he was reading something on his phone. “There was never an explosion at Mason Industries.  
“What?” Rufus questioned.  
“They erased the mission” Logan muttered. “Where’s Lucy?”  
“Professor Lucy Preston is still a college professor,” Flynn said, showing them his phone.  
“We have to find her,” Wyatt said.  
“What if she’s Rittenhouse?” questioned Rufus, the idea making him agitated.  
“She didn’t know about it until the mission, Carolyn Preston must be bidding her time” Flynn pointed out and faced the soldier. “Check the house, I’ll check the college”  
“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Rittenhouse is still out there looking for us”  
“We have time, for all they know right now, we are a missing engineer, a soldier and a dead man,” Garcia said without a moment hesitance, not sparing a thought to his admission. “Rufus, stay here”  
“What about the boat?”  
“Text me what you need to get it working again,” Wyatt said. “We’re going back to our timeline”  
“Then why are we going to look for Lucy?” the engineer questioned.  
“If we fail, we’ll need her”  
“And if she’s Rittenhouse?”  
“She’ll kick and scream, but I’ll get her here” Flynn assured.  
“And force her to help? I don’t think--” Rufus protested.  
“It’s not like I haven’t done it before” the former NSA smirked.  
“Rufus, it’s Lucy” Wyatt intervened. “even if she knows about Rittenhouse, she doesn’t agree with it. She’s more likely to fight it to death than to cooperate with them”  
Garcia paused and went to the Lifeboat, much to the other men’s confusion. Rufus opened his mouth to protest when he saw the man pulling something out of place on the boat, but stopped when he saw a journal.  
“What the…?” began Carlin. “How did you…?”  
“Didn’t think I’d need it so soon” Flynn muttered.  
“Lucy’s journal?” Wyatt asked. “She didn’t believe it much the first time, I--”  
“It’s mine” the taller man interrupted. A small birthday gift from Lucy that, as expected, being useful. “I kept things here in case this sort of thing happened.” he checked the journal.  
“Where’s Lucy’s?” Rufus asked.  
“Jacket pocket” Garcia didn’t even need to think. “I never leave without it, it’s always with me or on the boat” he faced the other two. “Don’t jump without one of these in there”  
“A.k.a. ‘don’t jump until I get back’. Should we get one of these too?”  
“It won’t do harm” the Croatian seemed to be looking for something. He looked up then, apparently having given up. “We met here at ten. If anyone doesn’t show, jump. Keep a record of whatever happens” he ordered and faced Wyatt. Call me if you find Lucy” back to Rufus. “Send me the list too and don’t do anything stupid.  
“So, what? I just wait here and do nothing?”  
Flynn licked his lips, thinking of something. “Can you get Mason to help?”  
“I might” the engineer raised an eyebrow.  
“What if he can’t? We don’t know how Mason Industries is going or what they are doing” Wyatt reminded.  
“Then, Rufus it up, hack them. I’ll steal the Mothership again if needed.”  
Flynn was walking away before Rufus or Wyatt could say something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm not sure if I should end this here, do tell me if you want me to go on and I'll see what I can do.


	3. Sight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the love and special thanks to Kiwi9814, Dortheyj and Tsuuriki for the lovely comments.  
> Enjoy!

The buzzing of his phone announced the message he had been expecting. Wyatt’s text was short but clear:  
“Where the hell are you? Call me!”  
Rufus got the phone back in his pocket and entered the Starbucks, he stopped on the line right behind a young woman, then muttered something in Klingon. The young woman said something in response.  
“You know me” the engineer whispered in English to her.  
“You’re still my boyfriend, Rufus,” she said without turning to him. “I knew you were coming”  
“How-- The visions, but--”  
“An accident with Big Sam some time ago”  
“Big Sam?” he questioned.  
“There was a bit of chaos a few years back, a man called Flynn tried to steal the Mothership, Connor decided then that it was better to have a lifeboat for the Lifeboat”  
The techie gave her a hesitant nod before speaking again. “Tried?”  
“He was killed while in police custody”  
“How was he caught?”  
“A new guard caught him”  
“I see… Jiya, how is Anthony?”  
“Died in the Flynn incident” she turned to face him. “You really aren’t from this timeline, are you?”  
“No,” he said, agitated for a moment. “Do you know an Agent Christopher?”  
“Sure, she took care of Flynn’s case. Why?”  
“Good, we’ll need her help”  
Jiya’s eyes rolled back and Rufus was quick to get her out of the line and have her sit down.  
“Jiya?” he tried and saw her breathing grow erratic. “Jiya?!”  
They were starting to attract attention, but, much to his relief, she came back. However, the peace was short lived because as soon as her eyes met his Jiya muttered “They’re coming”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for now, guys, but feel free to give suggestions in the comments.  
> I'm not sure how far I'm going with this, I'll see how the ideas go.


	4. Meeting

“Can you prove it?”  
Garcia found Lucy standing near his table, the anger clear on her face.  
He laid his coffee cup down and gesture for her to take the seat in front of him.  
It was around nine already, he soon would have to go back to the bunker, yet something made him stay. He wasn’t sure if it had been wishful thinking or if he did know her. Neither were options the man was willing to debate now, even if the second would make him smile.  
The thing was: this Lucy was not any of the other ones he had met, there was no telling what she knew, what she had lived through and what she would do.  
‘Can you kill her? Because you’ll have to be ready to if it’s necessary’  
Flynn swallowed down hard and raised his eyes to meet hers, which were growing anxious, and the mix of brown and green told him a lot but not enough.  
“I do can” he finally told her. “But I have to know if I can trust you”  
“What?” she questioned, clearly not believing her ears. “If you don’t trust me, then why did you come to me?”  
“Because I need you, my team needs you” he leaned in closer then and saw her raise an eyebrow at that, she shifted a little and swallowed. Flynn licked his lips and had to fight back the growing smile on his face, he was more amused than it showed and he was aware that he didn’t look funny at all. “Before we begin, I need to make it clear, Professor Preston, that if there is the slightest indication that you’re involved with Rittenhouse in ways other than the ones known to me, I’ll not hesitate to do what is necessary to protect this mission”  
“Are you threatening me?” she asked leaning away from him.  
“This is not a threat, this is a promise. I’ll do whatever it takes to get this job done, won’t be the first time and I have no reason to believe that it’ll be the last. So, are you certain you want to continue?”  
She held his gaze the whole time through his threat and through the lingering moment that followed. Finally, she leaned in, meeting his challenge. “Yes, I am certain. Don’t you ever threaten me again, Mr. Flynn”  
Lucy got up. “Are we going to do this or what?”  
The grin that spread through his lips was big. He got up, laid some cash on the table and started walking, the historian soon walked by his side.   
“What do you need me for?” she asked.  
“Oh, we need a history nerd, I am a history nerd, but you are a history nerd with two books and certification. I can’t compete with that”


	5. Lapse

“Do you think he could kill her?” he asked, an arm falling to his side.  
Rufus stopped typing and looked over his shoulder to a very anxious Wyatt. “He said to wait until ten, Wyatt”  
“What if he doesn’t show up?” the soldier pressed.  
“We jump” the engineer answered.  
“Is it Flynn?” Jiya asked.  
“Yes” her boyfriend answered.  
“Your Flynn isn’t dead, how is he like?”  
Rufus gave her a short shrug before turning back to his equipment. “Better teammate than I would have expected”  
“What if Lucy is Rittenhouse?” Logan tried again.  
“We will have a very unwilling historian, then. Flynn isn’t the type to take ‘no’ for an answer when it comes to this mission”  
“And if she threatens him? Do you think he could kill her?”  
Carlin paused for a moment, gaze lost on the keyboard. He let out a sigh. “Maybe”  
That made the soldier even more anxious. “We can’t let him”  
Rufus turned to his friend. “Wyatt, for all we know she could be our Lucy, but she could also be as bad as Flynn was when we met him with the plus of being a Rittenhouse princess”  
“Lucy? As in Lucy Preston?” Jiya questioned.  
“Yes, why?” Logan was all ears to the young woman.  
“She’s clean, I checked,” Marri told him.  
“Are you sure?”  
“She’s a history professor, an only child, happens to be the daughter of Carolyn Preston and Henry Cahill, but she never showed any indications of being Rittenhouse”  
“Do you have any idea if she has a journal?” Rufus questioned.  
“She does” a voice intervened and the group saw Flynn walk in, along with a Lucy who was studying the bunker with curious eyes. “Professor Preston, these are Jiya Marri, Rufus Carlin, and Wyatt Logan, the Time Team”  
“Cool name, but weird…” Lucy commented. “It’s nice to meet you”  
“So, she doesn’t know us?” Wyatt asked.  
“Should I?” the historian inquired frowning.  
“Did she know you?” Rufus tried and saw Flynn shake his head in a ‘no’. “This is gonna be tough. Well, Jiya knew we were coming and Rittenhouse knows we are here”  
“There’s something else,” Wyatt said, getting all the attention. “Jessica is alive, she texted me, she wants to meet, says she has information that can help”  
Flynn studied the soldier for a moment. “Did you answer her?”  
“Not yet”  
A nod from the former terrorist. “We’ll meet her”  
“Wait, we’re gonna meet a Rittenhouse agent who kidnapped Jiya and got me killed once?” Rufus protested.  
“We don’t know this Jessica” Flynn said, much to Logan’s surprise. “If she is giving us intel on Rittenhouse, we’re using it”  
“And if it’s a trap?”  
“We kill her”  
“Wow! That was a lot of information” Lucy commented.  
“Just a day on the life” Rufus commented. “You’ll get used to it”  
“Perhaps I should show her how this all works” Jiya suggested.  
“That would be good.” the engineer said, then turned to the other men. “Do you guys need me on this? I really am not a fan of meeting those agents.”  
“I’ll back up, Wyatt”  
“Wait, is that a good idea? You are our only muscles, right?” Lucy observed.  
“We are,” Flynn said, then faced Jiya. “Where can we find Agent Christopher, Jiya?”  
“I can find her address, tell her I sent you, she’ll know what this is about… Just… Flynn, don’t be the one at the door”  
“Why not?” Lucy was the one courageous enough to ask, Jiya gave her a sad smile.  
“The Garcia Flynn from this timeline was killed by a Rittenhouse agent that was hidden at Mason Industries”  
“That’s how you know Rittenhouse and how you didn’t freak out about Flynn” Rufus concluded and she nodded.  
“We did some digging and found things that didn’t fit about Flynn, so we found out about Rittenhouse, but we had nothing to go on with,” Jiya said.  
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Garcia said and turned to the soldier. “When are we meeting Jessica?”  
“Tonight”  
Flynn checked his watch. “This late, it can’t be good. Okay, off we go, we’ll contact Christopher on the way. Rufus, if you need us, you know where to call us. Again, something goes wrong, jump”  
“Will do”  
“What about me?” Lucy questioned, “What do I do?”  
Garcia observed her for a moment then looked at Jiya and Rufus. “Rufus, tell her about our timeline, see what has changed in history. We need to know how far ahead Rittenhouse is” he once again turned to Wyatt. “Let’s go”  
Rufus waited until he heard the door close. “Oh, my God, one of us really need to learn how to shoot”  
“I know,” Lucy said.  
“Yeah, but you don’t Flynn it up”  
“What is that?” Jiya asked with an amused smile on her lips.  
“When Flynn goes full psycho and suddenly all the bad guys are dead, would be cool if it wasn't scary. The man is a nutjob.”  
“He seemed nice,” Preston said.  
“Yeah” Jiya agreed.  
Rufus let out a chuckle. “Oh, my God, where did we end up?”


	6. Personal

“Are you always this extra?” Denise questioned while grabbing her coat to join Flynn outside.  
“He can be worse” Wyatt informed, his face twisted in an expression that told a lot about his personal experience in the matter.  
“And you are…?” the agent asked.  
“Wyatt Logan, ma’am, Delta Force”  
“That must have been a hell of a ride to put a soldier and a dead terrorist together” commented the woman making her way to get the car. “Where are we going?”  
Flynn got a hand to block the car door. “You're going on your own,” he told, “You know Rufus Carlin, right?”  
“A dead man and a missing one? What's going on here?... May I, at least, know where I'm going?”   
Garcia gave her an amused grin and a small piece of paper.  
Christopher paused after reading the address, her shoulders lowering and a sigh escaped her lips. She faced the tall man, then reached for something in her pocket. “You lost your daughter to these people, you know what's at stake here” she handed him a flash drive, “I studied your file for a long time, trying to make sense of what happened” a pause and she stared deep into his eyes, “I trust you can keep this safe, it's in case something happens to my family”  
The man agreed. “You won’t regret this”  
“I better not” she got into the car and left them behind.  
Wyatt watched the vehicle on the distance. “People trust you with a lot of personal stuff” he commented with a raised eyebrow and arms crossed on his chest. “I wonder why”  
“Christopher knows we wouldn’t normally be able to access that bunker.” he turned to the soldier. “I can’t answer for Lucy, though”   
He walked to the car, leaving Logan to debate the answers for himself.

 

She was standing in the middle of the warehouse and, much to her credit, there was no gun in sight. Other than that, this Jessica Logan looked very much like the one that had shared the bunker with them.  
Wyatt was careful as he walked in, aware of the damage she had done once, unwilling to let that happen again, to let the team get hurt a second time. He stopped walking a good distance away from her, a shadow of hurt passing through her features in response.  
Jessica rose her arms in surrender then. “I wasn’t sure you’d come”  
“You said it was important” the man observed. “Are you with them?”  
Her gaze lingered on his expression for a moment, she licked her lips. “Don’t shoot, there’s something I want to give you”  
She made her way to the truck, got something from the passenger's seat and returned with a thick file in her hand, which she placed on the floor and slid over to him.  
Wyatt could hardly believe his eyes when he read what was inside. He faced her. “Why are you doing this?”  
“Because you’re my family, I want this over with” she confessed, looking as tired as she sounded.  
“They’ll kill you for this”  
“I became expandable long before this, Wyatt”  
“Jess…”  
“I have to go. I’ll see you around” she got to the truck and grabbed a gun.  
From his hiding spot, Flynn prepared to shoot, his view clear, yet he waited. Jessica shot twice to the ceiling, got into the car and left.  
“What is it?” Garcia questioned after checking the warehouse for a possible surprise attack.  
“Data on the sleepers,” Wyatt said, making the other man face him. “I recognize some of the faces here. We have names and dates too, we should take this to Lucy, see if it checks out” the soldier seemed tired.  
Flynn stopped before his teammate and nodded, examined the file for himself and suddenly froze. “Rittenhouse knows we are alive”  
Wyatt glanced over at the former NSA asset, who showed him two photos.  
“These are the men who killed Iris and Lorena. They’re still alive”


	7. Chapter 7

There was a knock on the door that made the two women look up.  
“Hey, mom,” said Lucy with a smile.  
“Hey, baby. Jessica, good to see you around.” Mrs. Preston said with a pleased smile before facing her daughter again. “Are you guys working? I thought of ordering something.”  
“Actually, we were just about to leave, Jess and her husband are taking me to this blind date” Lucy admitted making a face.  
Carolyn faced Jessica surprised. “Is that so? Do I know him?”  
“I don’t think you do, Mrs. Preston, he’s an old friend of mine,” the blonde woman said getting up from her chair, burying her hands in her pockets.  
“Well, is he good?”  
“Oh, very” Logan nodded.  
They heard a honking noise.  
“Must be Wyatt” said Lucy checking her wristwatch. “We have to go” she gave her mother a quick peck on the cheek before grabbing her purse and giving Jessica a look.  
“Enjoy!” Carolyn said as she watched the two women leave.  
Once inside the car, the pair sighed.  
“Excellent timing, babe” Jessica said turning to Wyatt and giving him a quick kiss.  
“What did I miss?” he asked.  
“My mom got home earlier than expected while we were discussing the sleeper’s file,” Lucy told him.  
“Do you think she heard anything?” Jessica questioned.  
“No, we were done by the time she got close enough to hear” the historian commented.  
“Good,” the soldier said.  
“How are things going?” Preston asked.  
“Connor is making progress, he got us this toy that keeps track of the changes in history, said he wanted you to take a look” Wyatt explained.  
“Okay”  
“Can you stay at the bunker tonight? I think we’ll need you there”  
“Well, we just told my mom I was going on a date, so she’ll just assume everything went way too well”  
“Great, let’s go then”

 

A cup of hot chocolate was laid in front of her books on the table, making Lucy look up. Her boyfriend had a small smile on his lips. “How was your day?”  
“Would have been better if Jessica and I weren’t going full double agent, but it’s worth it” the historian said. “Thank you for the chocolate.”  
“You should take a break” he suggested. “You’ve been reading this since Connor got it to check his new invention”  
She gave him a tender smile. “Maybe, it’s just that we’re doing so well, I just want this whole thing to be over as soon as possible”  
“Trust me, Lucy, we’re doing much better than in my original timeline” he informed.  
“How bad was it?”  
“Chaos, I’ll tell you everything someday”  
“You said we worked together there”  
“We did, but not before some mess. Jessica also wasn’t in our side, so we didn’t have the privileged intel and neither were you in good terms with your mom enough to show us the easier way around it.”  
“Guess we are really doing better”  
“And there will a whole lot of people who won’t get killed because of what we’ve been doing”  
“It’s a good day, then”  
“Take a break, the world will survive a night of sleep”  
She smiled. “How are things here?”  
“Not ideal, but I’m used to this place by now”  
“Rufus and Jiya?”  
“As pleasant as an engaged couple can be”  
“I’m glad they worked it out even with the timeline difference”  
“Jiya knew him, her visions gave her that, she knows who he is. They’d be fine”  
“I hope so,” the historian said.  
“Come, now. Let’s get you to bed” he said, offering her a hand.  
Lucy accepted, following him to his room, her chocolate in one hand.  
The world would survive a break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this might feel sudden and I'm sorry, but this story really wasn't planned out and it would be unfair to all of us to keep dragging it. So I decided it was for the best to end it here.  
> Hope you'll forgive me and hope you have enjoyed the ride.  
> Always thankful for your attention,  
> Ro.


End file.
